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Topic: Zero Suicide campaign (Read 998 times)

I see that Jeremy Hunt's diverting attention away from other things by pushing the Zero Suicide campaign.

To state my personal position, on the one hand, I don't like to think of anyone killing themselves who could have instead had a tolerable quality of life; but on the other hand, some people believe that they should have the right to choose when to end their lives, especially if they are in extreme pain or have a condition that is taking away their autonomy, or are close to death anyway, and I believe that they should have that right.

Whether people should have the right to help to end their lives, which goes to the heart of whether our society accepts that option, is a matter currently being litigated through the courts. But hey, why wait until the courts have decided before going high profile again on a national campaign for zero suicide?

I have, through caring for my parents and through seeing how it is for friends and through my own experiences, seen how much people can suffer with pain and incapacity that either cannot be alleviated or is not being alleviated, and I've also seen how enormous a difference it makes whether you have an advocate to stand up for you, preferably someone powerful, and forgive me for saying it, preferably at least one man. So I personally believe that suicide, when planned and thought out, should be an option, but that is, as I say, being litigated through the courts in relation to what help may be given by others.

But insofar as some people believe that we should achieve a zero suicide situation, I think that it is utterly hypocritical (and that's as politely as I can express it) for a minister at the heart of privatising the NHS, of privatising and destroying the care and support for people in extreme mental distress and people with physical conditions that are barely endurable to campaign for zero suicide. If he doesn't want people to kill themselves, he should do something about the care that can make the difference between life being bearable and unbearable. And while he's about it, he can also have a chat with his fellow ministers about the practical and financial support that can make life bearable.

I'll be frank: I find the Zero Suicide campaign scary, mainly because I feel that if life becomes unbearable I, as a 'mental' person would end up locked up in a hellhole to keep me alive. If you've only been in or visited nice mental hospitals, that may not seem a big deal, but I've been in one so awful I gave evidence to a parliamentary enquiry about cover ups of the things that went on there.

Yet how many fewer people might even want to kill themselves if they had the help, the psychological care, the medical care, the surgical care, the kindness, the nurturing, the personal care, the decent respect, the social inclusion etc. they need and, as human beings, deserve?

Jeremy Hunt - You're a Hypocrite of the Highest Order.

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(I'm an obsessive problem-solver, so feel free to ignore any suggestions or solutions I offer, even if they sound terribly insistent.)

I agree with your thoughts Sunny as I so often do but please don't be scared you'll be locked up for feeling suicidal, there simply aren't the beds and if you don't tell people around you no one would know anyway. People with depression who are suicidal can be detained under a section 2 for up to 28 days. I don't know of anyway whose diagnosis is depression with no psychosis be detained under section 3 of the Act so even if you did tell people around you, you wouldn't be in for longer than 28 days and the chances of them finding you a bed or feeling you were seriously ill enough to occupy a bed when there's a queue of psychotic patients waiting for a change of linen on your bed is extremely low. So be reassured on that point!